Than this guest post from last years EdTwinge karma winner the awesome Chris Cox, or as I’m reminded by Deirdre Bunting is aka BigCox. (And she should know.)
“If you’re performing or simply visiting Edinburgh for funtimes this August and you think a webmaster is Spiderman, then you need to sort your life out.
It was barely a few years ago when I would go through the Fringe programme, correlate what I wanted to see into an Excel spreadsheet that I could sort by start time, end time and my own personal rating out of 5 to make sure I got the most out of the Fringe, but the geek within me doesn’t get that chance now thanks to the explosion of websites, apps and twitter giving me a minute-by-minute lowdown on what to see.
Having done 4 years worth of shows I am having a year off this year, a bit like Glastonbury, I have a fallow one in every five, but this does mean I can now go up without having really planned to see much, and crowdsource the shows to see and avoid on Twitter.
I use Twitter far too much, as an audience member I will be publishing 140 character reviews of each show I see after seeing it, I have just shy of 4000 followers including some well known faces – ohhhh get me. This means that if I see something that I like, 4000 people will know about it. If other people talk about it on Twitter to their followers, which they are likely to do, if they hash tag it so it appears on sites like this, that is an awful lot of free PR.
How can you take advantage of all that free PR. Simple? Use Twitter, there are a lot of shows I’m planning on seeing this year because I’ve heard about them on twitter from the the performer or their fans.
Last year I found myself hugely engaged with my audience via Twitter. Getting an instant reaction to a show is a wonderfully satisfying, if not mentally disturbing thing. The important this is not to just promote your show, but to chat to people, reply, offering insight, offer entertainment, offer interest. Something as stupid as me complaining about the lack of crackers for cheese in the shop by my flat, saw someone bring me a pack to my show, which meant not only did I sell a show ticket but I also got a free pack of crackers.
If you’re interesting enough people will care about what you’re saying, how your shows are going and hopefully come along. It’s not a one way street, interact, offer your own advice, tell some funnies.
It’s all straight forward, be a nice person, use twitter, talk about what you’re going through, it’s good therapy at the very least, but hopefully a twitter buzz will start to generate and people will see your show because of it.
Don’t go thinking you can get away without flyering though.”
Thanks Chris, you’re spot on about Twitter, it’s a game-changer and hugely useful tool for acts at the Fringe.
In EdTwinge’s not-so-humble opinion; an act that says it doesn’t do Twitter is like an act that says it don’t do group sex.
A lifestyle choice yes, and not compulsory, but both unthinkable in this day and age.
